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Alveolar consonant
Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli (the sockets) of the superior teeth. Alveolar consonants may be articulated with the tip of the tongue (so-called apical consonants), as in English, or with the flat of the tongue just above the tip (the "blade" of the tongue; called laminal consonants), as in French and Spanish. The laminal alveolar articulation is often mistakenly called dental, because the tip of the tongue can be seen near to or touching the teeth. However, it is the rearmost point of contact that defines the place of articulation; this is where the oral cavity ends, and it is the resonant space of the oral cavity that gives consonants and vowels their characteristic timbre. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) does not have separate symbols for the alveolar consonants. Rather, the same symbol is used for all coronal places of articulation which aren't palatalized like English palato-alveolar sh, or retroflex. To disambiguate, the bridge ( , etc.) may be used for a dental consonant, or the under-bar ( , etc.) may be used for the postalveolars. Note that differs from dental in being a sibilant, rather than a thibilant. differs from postalveolar in being unpalatalized. The bare letters , etc. cannot be assumed to specifically represent alveolars. The language may not make such distinctions, such that two or more coronal places are found allophonically, or the transcription may simply be too broad to distinguish dental from alveolar. If it is necessary to specify a consonant as alveolar, a diacritic from the Extended IPA may be used: , etc.. Nonetheless, the symbols themselves are frequently called 'alveolar', and the language examples below are all alveolar sounds. (The Extended IPA diacritic was devised for speech pathology and is frequently used to mean 'alveolarized', as in the labioalveolar sounds , where the lower lip contacts the alveolar ridge.) Alveolar consonants in IPA The alveolar/coronal consonants identified by the IPA are: Lack of alveolars The alveolar or dental consonants t and n are, along with k, the most common consonants in human languages.Ian Maddieson and Sandra Ferrari Disner, 1984, Patterns of Sounds. Cambridge University Press Nonetheless, there are a few languages which lack them. A few languages on Bougainville Island and around Puget Sound, such as Makah, lack nasals and therefore , but have . Colloquial Samoan, however, lacks both and , though it has a lateral alveolar approximant . (Samoan words written with the letters t'' and ''n are pronounced with and except in formal speech.) Alveolar Switching Japanese speakers often mix alveolar lateral approximant sounds in other languages with alveolar approximant sounds due to a lack of alveolar lateral approximants in their own language. See also * Place of articulation * List of phonetics topics Notes References * * af:Alveolaar ar:لثوي bn:দন্তমূলীয় ব্যঞ্জনধ্বনি bar:Alveolar br:Kensonenn kevig bg:Венечна съгласна ca:Alveolar cs:Alveolární souhláska cy:Cytsain orfannol de:Alveolar es:Consonante alveolar eo:Alveolaro fr:Consonne alvéolaire gv:Corockle cooyl-eeacklagh ko:치경음 id:Konsonan rongga-gigi it:Consonante alveolare he:עיצורים מכתשיים lv:Alveolārs līdzskanis li:Alveolaar lmo:Cunsunanta alveulara hu:Alveoláris hang ml:വര്‍ത്സ്യം ms:Konsonan gusi nl:Alveolaar ja:歯茎音 no:Alveolarer nn:Alveolar pl:Spółgłoska przedniojęzykowo-dziąsłowa pt:Consoante alveolar ro:Consoană alveolară ru:Альвеолярные согласные sv:Alveolar konsonant ta:பல்முகட்டு மெய் uk:Ясенний приголосний zh:齿龈音